Oreos and such

On my journey from Vegetarianism to  Veganism a few weeks ago one of the first things I discovered was that Oreos are vegan.  I never eat chocolate or biscuits really but for the first two weeks I became a vegan I packed four (yes FOUR) oreos into a zipped up clear bag and popped them in my bag for work.  I’d show those work lot that being a Vegan wasn’t boring.  I could eat Oreos!!!  I also added pink wafers to my ‘favourites’ at my Tesco shop along with ‘bacon rasher crisps’ because these too I had discovered were Vegan.

As you may guess my Vegan diet wasn’t exactly going to plan.

I wasn’t feeling great at all – I was basically eating confectionary and soya products .  No wonder my stomach hurt!!

Week three and it’s all getting a bit better.  I’ve become a little more sensible and stopped only buying things that say ‘free from’.  Because what I realised of course is there’s a lot of free from stuff – like potatoes, carrots, courgettes, onions, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, rocket etc etc etc!

So I made a lovely vegan curry last night, even if I do say so myself and guess what – onion bhajis are VEGAN!!!   I like to cut corners when I cook – well maybe not like but I have to because I’m out at work over 50hrs a week, I write at night, I have a dog and a son that need feeding and talking to so I cut corners! I also cook on the cheap a bit because, well again, I have to!  Also I’m the only vegan in the house and my son tends to eat completely different meals to me so I have to buy things that last!  I buy a lot of frozen veg now, there’s always different opinions about whether it’s as good as fresh but for me it’s cheaper and it also lasts so I use it!

I made this vegan curry last night and it was so yummy! I first made it with tofu but maybe it’s me not getting the hang of it but I really wasn’t keen on the texture and again it just felt kind of ‘made up food’ so I stuck to what I know! The curry was made with (frozen) chopped onion, mushrooms, (frozen) chopped leeks, (frozen) chopped courgettes, some curry paste, vegetable stock (Tesco have a value stock cube for 27p!), coconut milk and some basil thrown in at the end, I served it with the said onion bhajis (I bought them from co-op!) and some brown rice.  It was totally delicious!

I’m  quite excited tonight as I treated myself to the vegan cook-book by Aine Carlin ‘Keep it Vegan’. I’ve downloaded about 50 recipes from the internet but I’ve mixed them all up and a flapjack recipe goes on to a mushroom lasagne so thought I’d play safe and get one that is actually bound!

Wish me luck! 🙂